Islamic Society *Saturday, May 02 2009* The Dark Side of Dubai: Credit and Ecocide, Suppression and Slavery <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1377>
The wide, smiling face of Sheikh Mohammed – the absolute ruler of Dubai – beams down on his creation. His image is displayed on every other building, sandwiched between the more familiar corporate rictuses of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders. This man has sold Dubai to the world as the city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, a Shangri-La in the Middle East insulated from the dust-storms blasting across the region. He dominates the Manhattan-manqué skyline, beaming out from row after row of glass pyramids and hotels smelted into the shape of piles of golden coins. And there he stands on the tallest building in the world – a skinny spike, jabbing farther into the sky than any other human construction in history. But something has flickered in Sheikh Mohammed's smile. The ubiquitous cranes have paused on the skyline, as if stuck in time. There are countless buildings half-finished, seemingly abandoned. In the swankiest new constructions – like the vast Atlantis hotel, a giant pink castle built in 1,000 days for $1.5bn on its own artificial island – where rainwater is leaking from the ceilings and the tiles are falling off the roof. This Neverland was built on the Never-Never – and now the cracks are beginning to show. Suddenly it looks less like Manhattan in the sun than Iceland in the desert. Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history. -- *Johann Hari* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1377> Radical Islamism & Jihad *Pakistan: The Swat Model Could Be Replicated In South Punjab <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1374>* *Deadly social change* So, it is lack of understanding of this background that leads people to show surprise that south Punjab, which was considered a hub of Barelvi Islam, is moving towards Deobandi and Wahabi ideologies. A closer look, in fact, shows that a lot of Barelvis have shifted towards other ideologies and are part of the jihad industry without abandoning their original ideology. The gap between the Barelvis and Deobandis has narrowed most peculiarly in south Punjab. Is it because of the hundreds of madrasas that mushroomed in this belt especially in the 1980s? The answer is yes and no. Yes because the new madrasas, which were different from the traditional ones in the area, introduced a more dramatic curriculum that nurtured in the students an appreciation of sectarian and ideological differences. Hence, the sectarian violence in the region, which predates the current shift, dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. The radicalisation, including sectarian violence, represents an urge for social transformation because some prominent landowners in this area are Shia as opposed to the underdogs most of whom are Sunnis. The growing radicalisation in southern Punjab shown up in the inability of the state to carry out land reforms and shift the socioeconomic and political power structure from a pre-capitalist society to a capitalist one will have its consequences in the years to come. So while the proliferation of madrasas is part of the problem it does not explain the social development in its entirety. Not to mention that southern Punjab as a sub-region has suffered due to the gradual, reverse migration of the elite to other parts of the country creating a power vacuum that is ready to be filled by another lot. -- *Ayesha Siddiqa * More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1374> Islamic Personalities *Hazrat Omar’s truly Islamic governance <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1376>* *By Mufti Mohammad Zubair Haq Nawaz* ** ** ** More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1376> Islam and Human Rights *Protect Minorities in Pakistan from Taliban’s extortion and loot <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1372>* *State within a state* The Taliban in Orakzai Agency are reported to have occupied three homes and ten businesses belonging to Sikhs, to press for their demand that 'jaziya', a tax imposed non-Muslims, be paid. The militants had previously demanded a sum of Rs 50 million, which they later reduced to Rs15 million. This of course is extortion. There is no other name for it..... It is sad our legislators have not spoken up for the rights of the minorities who live in Taliban-controlled areas. Even in cities still outside Taliban rule, they have been targeted for violence and victimized. These most vulnerable of citizens need to be protected. – *Editorial in The News, Islamabad* 1 Comments More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1372> Islam,Terrorism and Jihad *India bearing the brunt of the blowback from past failed U.S. policies <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1373>* India got no tangible help from the Bush or Obama administration to bring the plotters of the Mumbai strikes to justice, despite providing extraordinary access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to independently investigate those attacks and even allowing the CIA to serve as a conduit for intelligence exchange with Islamabad. Rather, Washington wants India now to rise above the Mumbai attacks and aid Mr. Obama’s “Afpak” strategy by giving Pakistan a tranquil eastern border through troop redeployments. The U.S. message to India is to forget Mumbai and silently suffer Pakistan’s war by terror — a message reinforced by Washington’s identification of terrorist safe havens only along Pakistan’s western border. Ms Clinton indeed suggested India endure more Mumbais stoically by telling Congress, “So, we do have a lot of work to do with the Indian government, to make sure that they continue to exercise the kind of restraint they showed after Mumbai, which was remarkable, especially given the fact that it was the political season.” Take yet another case. The re-hyphenation of India with Pakistan today is complete. India now figures in U.S. calculations principally in relation to Pakistan and Mr. Obama’s new Afpak strategy. This poorly conceived strategy is doomed to fail. And its means and ends are sure to engender more terrorist attacks against India, already bearing the brunt of the blowback from past failed U.S. policies. -- *Brahma Chellaney* More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1373> Islam and Human Rights *Hope in Malaysia: New PM halts Islamisation drive <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1375>* *Malaysia bans secret conversion of minors* Although the Malaysian Cabinet’s decision to ban the conversion of minors without the consent of both parents and to make it law to raise children according to the common faith of the couple at the time of marriage, even if one of them later converts, is a welcome move towards empowering minorities in this multi-religious, multi-cultural country, optimism over the news needs to be tempered with caution. The decision was taken after the widely publicised case of Ms M Indira Gandhi was brought to the notice of the Malaysian Government. Ms Gandhi — an ethnic Indian Hindu — has been fighting a legal battle against her husband who recently embraced Islam and converted their three children to the religion— all minors — without her consent. The husband is said to have gone into hiding with the youngest of the three, baby Prasanna, aged one. But in the wake of the Cabinet decision the Ipoh High Court granted Ms Gandhi custody of all her children. She is now battling to be reunited with her infant child and see to it that all her children remain Hindus as the country’s Sharia’h Department has already taken note of their conversion. Ms Gandhi’s case is one of many reflecting the underlying social tensions plaguing this Muslim-dominated country. -- *The Pioneer Edit Desk* More.<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1375> -- Syed M. 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